Disruption and Leadership on Gartner’s DMSA Magic Quadrant

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It’s no secret that the analytics marketplace is going through major disruption as organizations look for solutions with the power and flexibility to tackle wide ranging use cases involving new analytics on more diverse types, formats and sources of data. In fact, demand for next generation architectures is such that Gartner has changed both the title and criteria for this year’s Magic Quadrant report on our sector.

In dropping reference to the traditional “data warehouse” and expanding its standards for excellence, Gartner says its criteria for the 2017 Magic Quadrant for Data Management Solutions for Analytics (DMSA) are now “more challenging and therefore more difficult to meet.” That’s why I’m especially proud to see Teradata ranked in this report as the overall leader for Completeness of Vision and in the top two for Ability to Execute!

Teradata’s strong performance among the Magic Quadrant’s field of 20 tough competitors demonstrates what Gartner calls our “market leadership in product capabilities” and “strong vision for the future.” The report summarizes how Teradata’s “scores for performance, across a broad range of use cases, were among the best of all the vendors in this Magic Quadrant” and how 80-percent of our reference customers consider us the enterprise standard for DMSA.

Self-Disrupting for Success

As I mentioned, this stellar performance for Teradata is happening in a period of tremendous disruption. As Gartner wrote in the report summary, “disruption is accelerating in this market, with more demand for broad solutions…in an increasingly dynamic space.” Indeed, the dynamics have not been kind to many other key players, household names who nonetheless lost ground in this Magic Quadrant. Amid this backdrop, it’s clear to me that Teradata’s proactive drive to self-disrupt and get ahead of the analytics curve over the past few years has played a major role in our success in this new report.

It’s clear that Teradata’s proactive drive to self-disrupt and get ahead of the analytics curve over the past few years has played a major role in its success

I’ve written before on self-disruption, and Teradata has embraced this ethos to become a pioneer in what Gartner refers to as the Logical Data Warehouse (LDW). Clients rely on analytics vendors to chart the future and provide the best solutions – including flexible deployment options and hybrid cloud choices – to seize competitive advantage. Quite frankly, I don’t think Teradata could have achieved our current position with Gartner as both a leader in “Ability to Execute” and unrivaled in “Completeness of Vision” if we hadn’t been so proactive with our own innovations in these areas.

Even the standard “Cautions” category, which Gartner includes as part of every vendor assessment, reflects our sure-footed progress amid a fast-changing analytics marketplace: In describing market shifts from appliance-based into cloud and software-only solutions, Gartner notes how “Teradata is addressing this shift by embracing these new approaches.” And Gartner commends Teradata Everywhere and our new licensing flexibility that helps drive down the total cost of ownership and allows customers more choice in strategically leveraging Teradata resources when and where they’re needed most to satisfy business needs.

“Best of Breed” Excellence

Gartner was one of the first analyst firms to advocate the Logical Data Warehouse to meet increasing demand for a wide variety of analytics on diverse forms of data that can overwhelm traditional enterprise data warehouse strategies. Clients need more analytic options in managing relational and non-relational processing, machine learning and other advanced applications. And more organizations are incorporating the cloud for increased flexibility, agility and operational pricing models.

Teradata’s Hybrid Cloud Solutions and our best of breed Unified Data Architecture strategy uniquely position us to address all use cases, leading Gartner to acknowledge Teradata’s technology as “some of the most technically advanced and capable in the DMSA market” and the “most appropriate for the most demanding analytical use cases.” I should mention that Teradata was also recognized in two other Gartner evaluations: We are one of the few technology vendors to be included in the Magic Quadrant for Business Analytics Services, and we appear for the first time in the Magic Quadrant for Data Sciences Platforms.

Taken together, Gartner’s high marks for Teradata in bringing advanced analytics solutions and services to an increasingly demanding customer base are immensely gratifying. That’s because it’s a validation of all the dedication, vision and ability to execute that’s driven our company – a relentless pursuit of excellence in modern analytics that continues to help customers differentiate themselves and unleash the full potential of their business!

Oliver Ratzesberger is President and Chief Executive Officer of Teradata Corporation. Until January 2019, he served as Teradata’s Chief Operating Officer with global operating responsibility for Teradata’s operations and led the company’s strategies for go-to-market, products, and services. He joined Teradata’s Board of Directors in November 2018.

Mr. Ratzesberger has an extensive background in analytics, big data, and software development. Prior to Teradata, he worked for both Fortune 500 and early-stage companies, holding positions of increasing responsibility in software development and IT, including leading the expansion of analytics at eBay.

A pragmatic visionary, Oliver frequently speaks and writes about leveraging data and analytics to improve business outcomes. His book with co-author Mohanbir Sawhney, “The Sentient Enterprise: The Evolution of Decision Making,” was published in 2017 and was named to the Wall Street Journal Best Seller List.

Oliver is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program and earned his engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from HTL Steyr in Austria. He lives in San Diego with his wife and two daughters.